28 August 2009

He's HERE! The best part is that we are now home! We got up early Tuesday morning for a scheduled induction at 7 am. Alison took Amelia for the entire day and night. When we arrived the nurse set me up in the labor and delivery room (yes there is only one). My Dr wanted to try a more natural induction so he had the nurse give me a suppository to soften my cervix. He tried two doses, one a 8:30 and the next at 12:30. The doses did not do much for me, my body pretty much did all the work it was going to in the past two weeks. At 4:30 I was at the same dilation and effacement with no real strong contractions. So the Dr started me on a pitocin drip around 5:00 pm. He checked me an hour later and I was dilated to 5, so he broke my water. The contractions were of course about 20 times more painful. I asked for an epidural asap. Justin put on Major Payne for me, sure enough the anesthesiologist came a few minutes into the movie just like with Amelia. My back apparently is primo for epidurals! Unfortunately the pitocin was still going so sitting still was near impossible. The epidural tube ended up sliding down too far creating a spinal and punching through the dural layer. My legs were completely useless. It was so odd to watch the nurses throwing my legs here and there having no spatial attachment to them! Soon after the epidural I was dilated to a 10 and ready to go. They threw my legs up in these mondo stirrups and helped me push when I was ready. The spinal did not include my uterus so I was able to tell when my contractions were there and when to push. My contractions stopped completely at that point because the pitocin was stopped during the epidural. So the nurse started the pitocin again and we waited for 15 minutes until the contractions started again. There is no shame left after having my legs in the air while the Dr and his assistant sat in front of me discussing the weather. LOL...Finally the time came and pushing started. I pushed about 6 times before it became apparent that the baby's head was stuck and not coming down. So the Dr grabbed the forceps and yanked the poor baby out. The accidental spinal ended up being a blessing in disguise. He popped right out with no marks.

The baby was so quiet afterwards I was a little worried. As the Dr waited for the next step in delivery I could feel my blood pressure drop. It dropped to 80 over 30 causing me to go into shock, fainting a couple times, and barfing all over. I have no recollection of what was going on until the anesthesiologist gave me something to pick up my blood pressure. The baby still was not crying...to date I have not heard him cry. Most of the funny pictures of him where it looks like a cry are just grunts and little mewling sounds. He weighed 8lbs 1oz, 19 3/4 inches, and arrived at 8:03 pm. I finally got to hold and nurse him once my BP stabilized. What a cute little man. Justin went home around 11 to get some sleep. I stayed in the delivery room until after 1am. I felt awesome until the nurse had me stand up to get in the wheelchair. My head exploded with the worst headache I've EVER had. The nurse gave me percoscet, which did absolutely nothing for the headache. Turns out the spinal was leaking fluid out of my back causing my brain to sag each time I sat or stood. They were going to let me go home Wednesday night but kept me because I kept blacking out from the headache. The anesthesiologist ended up giving me a spinal patch around 2 pm on Thursday. He injected 15 cc's of my blood into the spinal area. I laid flat for an hour while the blood congealed creating a patch over the spinal leak. Within another hour my headache was 90% gone! It was amazing! I was home by 5 pm on Thursday.

Amelia is doing very well so far. The first time she came she was very stand-offish until I showed her my awesome bed remote control. She enjoyed pushing the bed up and down. At one point I asked if we could take the baby home. She said "No, put it back!" She love giving kisses and stroking his head. The hardest part now is not being able to really hold her. Due to the spinal patch I can't bend over or pick up anything besides Phillip until Monday. I am SO glad Justin is home at my beck and call. It is hard to remember my limitations at this time.

As you can see we named him Phillip Anson Call. Phillip is Justin's great grandfather's name, of which I just found out today he never went by Phillip but used his middle name. Anson is also Justin's ancestor. When our Phillip was born Justin said a whole host of angels and ancestors were in attendance to welcome him to this world. I am sure both Phillip and Anson were there. It seemed like the most appropriate name in spite of my reservations. If you ever call him Phil I will not be happy! His name is Phillip....